Jake
For once in my life, I’m absolutely sure I’ve done the right thing.
I can’t believe that I fell for Amos’s empty promises. Even now, I wonder how much influence it exerted over my mind and actions.
Every shout, every slap, every nasty thought about Julia swims through my brain as my soul is torn to pieces. How much of that was Amos? I shudder to think about how much was me.
Because I do hold a hell of a lot of blame, don’t I?
None of this would have happened if I’d been stronger.
But I was weak, and now, I have a terrible feeling that Amos knew that from the start.
As soon as I struck that deal in the driveway, Amos invaded my mind. The process itself was horrible. My brain and body was only big enough for one soul. The ordeal of adding another passenger wa sunbearably painful, and though my memories are hazy, I’m pretty sure that I passed out.
At first, it wasn’t so bad, not after that first part. Amos promised me anything and everything, and I had stupidly believed it.
It wove me a nice, cushy dream. I was in that sky high office it showed me before. In my groggy, confused mind, I was utterly convinced by the illusion. I spent an indeterminable amount of time at the huge, glossy desk directing a staff of phantoms. I didn’t suspect a thing.
Ellie had been there too. Amos pulled her form from my mind and made her my secretary. Her presence was distracting, to say the least.
But the more time I spent wrapped in the blissful arms of this vision, the more I realized that something wasn’t right.
Strange aches and pains blossomed in my limbs, even though I wasn’t doing anything more strenuous than lounging behind my desk. My voice grew more and more hoarse. And there was a headache that grew slowly but steadily over time until it reached a fever pitch that I could no longer ignore.
Yet, I didn’t fight it. I wasn't strong enough.
The illusion only broke at the arrival of somebody new.
My head felt like it was splitting open. I slumped over the desk, moaning in pain as a strange presence forced its way into my mind.
The thoughts that come to me then were fractured snippets of what washappening outside.
My own body, but the eyes empty and black as pitch. Julia, wearing an unfamiliar pair of sweatpants and a ratty T-shirt, something she would never be seen dead in.
The feelings of love and concern for Julia came as the biggest surprise. They were overwhelming, moving me almost to tears.
All at once, I realized that this newcomer must be Zeke, the ghost Amos told me about, the one who stole my wife from me.
I expected myself to be overcome with anger, but the intensity of the dead man’s love for Julia shocked me to my core. I felt something like that for her once, back when we were first dating. But as the years dragged on, that adoration shrunk to fondness, then to apathy before finally slipping into hatred under Amos’s expert tutelage.
And in that moment, I realized that I no longer deserved Julia.
Maybe I never had.
Amos wrested control back from Zeke pretty quickly, but the damage was already done. The illusion was broken. And even though the demon fought hard to keep me totally in the dark, I was able to observe most of Zeke’s view of the world unfiltered.
He forced me to watch Julia’s fear and desperation. She said something about a potion, which was strange. What was she talking about?
Zeke’s determined thoughts soon gifted me that insight. The potion had the potential to get rid of Amos for good, but that victory would come at a steep price. The ghost suspected that, with no other option in the face of certain death, Julia would use it on herself.
Amos would perish, but so would Julia.
I began to fight then. I was weak, far less powerful than Zeke had been against Amos’s iron grasp on my body, but I tried. It wasn’t much use, not until pain flared at the base of my skull and drove the demon out.
Momentarily freed, my path became clear. My body was largely in tact, but Amos’s and Zeke’s grapple for control ripped my mind apart. And the damage to my soul? Well, I did that to myself.
I drank the potion.
I saved Julia.
Even if there’s no absolution for me at the end, at least I was able to do that one thing, right that one last wrong.
And now, I sink down into the unrelenting darkness and await judgment.
Putrid mud closes in around me. Even with my eyes squeezed shut, I can feel the grit trying to claw its way between my lids. I try to keep my mouth closed, but I can’t escape the fetid taste of it as it invades my nostrils. My lungs burn. I’m trying to hold my breath, delaying the inevitable.
There’s a tearing sensation in some deep part of me, somewhere that transcends my body and dives into my very being.
It’s Amos, I realize. The demon is ejected, shrieking, into the muddy void.
At last, I’m free.
As I, too, separate from my body and begin to descend, something shifts in the murk below us.
An eerie red glow filters through my field of vision, bringing with it a searing heat.
Hell, I realize dejectedly.
But is that really any surprise?
All of the terrible things I’ve done flash through my mind. Using women like objects to cheat on Julia, who’s only sin was to love me in the first place. Building a business on a foundation of exploitation and greed. Slapping my wife.
Selling Julia out to Amos.
The portal below sucks me down, and I don’t try to fight it.
Amos, too, is pulled deeper, but it doesn’t go quietly.
Bursts of strange memories pulse in my mind. There’s a lineup of faces that shuffle past, though the only one I recognize is Zeke’s flashing somewhere near the middle. I see the swamp, but there are no gravestones in the clearing. And then an unfamiliar house swims to the forefront, a large, boxy building sagging toward the mire on the same foundation as the one I had built.
These thoughts belong to Amos, I realize.
But the demon’s walked this swamp for the last time.
The portal hungrily devours Amos’s soul. I don’t know if it’s dead, or if it’s just been sent back to hell. Honestly, I’d prefer that I never find out.
I don’t fight as the spectral opening beckons me deeper. I’d made a deal with the devil. My soul has been forfeited since the very moment I first allowed Amos in.
Resigned, I prepare to meet my fate.
Jake!
The familiar voice jolts me from my complacency. For the first time since leaving my body, I glance around, searching for the source.
An otherworldly sight greets me.
Everything is awash with an unnatural red haze. The fuzzy outline of a man floats beside me. High above, I catch sight of a body–my body–drifting loosely in the mud. Panic slices through me as the scene threatens to drive me mad.
Jake!
The shape next to me once again demands my attention. There’s something familiar about him, and I realize with a start that this must be the soul that fought Amos for control over my body.
This is Zeke.
There’s very little time.
The foreign thought runs through my mind, and I recognize that it belongs to the ghost. The words are the understatement of the year. I’m literally being dragged down into hell. What more can this guy want? Why is he even here? To taunt me?
I’m here for Julia. She wouldn’t want you to die alone.
Julia. Of course.
Even now, I can still feel the echoes of his feelings for my wife. The juxtaposition of his love against my hatred stirs a deep well of shame in me.
I should have cherished Julia when I had the chance. She’s a beautiful, kind, intelligent woman. I was so focused on myself that I lost sight of what was standing right in front of me. All of the cheating, all of the lies–they were only ever a reflection of myself.
I dragged Julia, an innocent, into all of this. She never wanted to come out here to this horrible place. In fact, she’d hated the swamp since we first toured the property, and I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I bought the land simply because I wanted her to suffer a little.
And the deal with Amos was entirely my doing. My greed and avarice twisted me into something I could no longer recognize.
Even after drinking the potion so that Julia could be saved, I’m never going to be free of my transgressions. Repenting now is too little, too late.
But maybe it’s time to do something not for my own redemption, but for Julia.
Something selfless.
I have no idea how to communicate without a body, but I do my best. I focus on my intentions and string the words together clearly through my mind before projecting them over to the figure of Zeke.
The shape’s head tilts, listening. I’m not sure if what I’m suggesting is even possible, but I have to keep up hope that maybe, just maybe, I can do this one last thing for Julia.
Are you sure?
I can sense Zeke’s hesitation in his response.
I’m absolutely sure. In fact, I’ve never been so certain of anything in my entire life.
Thank you.
Zeke’s gratitude flows through me, and I know that I’ve made the right choice.
I fight against the current of the portal for a moment longer. I need to make sure that Zeke does what I’ve asked. True to his word, his amorphous spirit surges upward through the mud, moving swiftly toward the prone shape of my body. He disappears into the torso, and for one tense moment, nothing happens.
But then, one of the arms twitches, and I know that it’s worked.
My last act of love is complete.
The void beneath me changes from that red glow to a soft yellow light, and I think maybe I have redeemed myself after all.
It’s time for me to go, and I’m not afraid.